A four-year long joint RCMP/FBI project came to fruition last week with the arrest of Hamilton mobster Domenic Violi and a dozen other organized crime figures in Ontario and New York. Arrest warrants have been issued for several others on the run – including Violi’s younger brother Giuseppe (Joe) Violi. The brothers are the sons of former Calabrian Montreal boss Paolo Violi who was murdered by the Rizzuto mob in a 1978 hit.

Also making an appearance in Project OTremens are members of the New York-based Bonanno and Gambino crime families, including Bonanno capo Damiano Zummo and Gambino made man Paul Semplice.

Two of the people that Toronto Police clerk Erin Maranan provided information about to the mob were later murdered.

While there is no evidence that Maranan knew anything about the murders, it is reasonable to assume that any police employee would know that criminal organizations don’t seek confidential police information so they can send people Christmas cards.

If Erin Maranan is convicted she should be imprisoned for many years as a deterrent to other corrupt police personnel. As I revealed in my first article about her arrest, ‘More to this story than being told’ organized crime has always sought to gain inside information about police knowledge and operations.

“Organized Crime will never cease paying corrupt police to provide information and protection.”

Right from the start of my law enforcement career in 1975, I saw that there were always a few corrupt police officers and civilian employees willing to trade confidential information for money or other benefits. And the money is huge. Back in 1985 the Toronto Kung Lok Triad was paying my squad over a hundred-thousand dollars a year to protect a single gambling den from police raids. (We were in deep-cover pretending to be corrupt, took the money and then later arrested the mobsters. See here.)

That was 32 years ago and something tells me that the price of inside police information hasn’t gone down since then.

Hamilton Police on mob payroll

A few days ago Oakville-based private investigator Derrick Snowdy published on the internet several pages of a July 24, 2002 Halton Regional Police confidential intelligence report detailing how mobsters Domenic VIOLI and Paul GRAVELLE had a number of police officers on the payroll, including Hamilton cop Richard WILLS. (You can read the documents below – click to enlarge. I’ve redacted the Identity Information even though the full documents are out there in the wild on the internet. I cannot vouch for their veracity. My source is Derrick Snowdy’s Twitter account @jdsnowdy )

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In 2010 Hamilton Police Inspector Richard ‘Rick’ Wills pleaded guilty to stealing $60,000 of drug bust money but was sentenced to 2 years ‘conditional’ house arrest – a kiss of a sentence for a corrupt senior cop who violated a position of trust.

Wills is also a defendant in a 2016 lawsuit by former Hamilton undercover cop Paul Manning. Manning – who penetrated the Hamilton mob as a deep cover police investigator under the alias ‘Paul Wright’ – alleges that Wills sold out and notified the mob that Manning was an undercover cop.

Manning’s lawsuit also alleges that several Hamilton police officers have ties to organized crime and that a Toronto cop was selling guns to Toronto gang members. A Toronto Star article laid it all out: Hamilton cop alleges betrayal by his force

In October of 2016 Toronto Police civilian Davita Federico, 30, was charged with breach of trust and other criminal offences for conducting unauthorized searches of police databases. News reports confirmed that Federico is related to then Deputy Chief of Police Mike Federico.

The case resurfaced last week as it was revealed that Toronto Police clerk Erin Maranan who was arrested at about the same time as Federico, was working for organized crime. There is no indication in news reports as to whether the Maranan and Federico cases are related in any way.

In October of 2009, Faskens lawyers Gerald Ranking and Sebastien Kwidzinski contacted and hired a corrupt Ontario Provincial Police Detective Sergeant to investigate the writer, Donald Best, in aid of Ranking’s clients and associated defendants in the ‘Nelson Barbados Group Ltd. vs. Cox’ civil case before the Ontario courts.

James ‘Jim’ Arthur Van Allen, the manager of the OPP’s elite Criminal Profiling Unit, secretly and illegally worked as an unlicensed private investigator for clients like lawyers Ranking and Kwidzinski who obviously appreciated his access to confidential police information, resources, contacts and investigative techniques.

And here, things get really corrupt and dirty. In 2007 it was reported to the Ontario Provincial Police that unknown persons, likely defendants in the Nelson Barbados Group Ltd. vs. Cox’ civil case, were threatening witnesses, lawyers and their family members in order to deter them from seeking justice in the courts.

Ranking and Kwidzinski’s clients and fellow defendants had been reported to the OPP as possible suspects involved in threatening witnesses, lawyers and their family members. Considering a lawyer’s family was being threatened, the reports probably even made their way to Van Allen’s Threats Assessment and Criminal Profiling Unit.

Nonetheless Detective Sergeant Jim Van Allen took money to perform illegal investigations against the victim – in assistance to the suspects.

How dirty and corrupt is that?

Former OPP boss Julian Fantino

Former OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino swears affidavit

Jim Van Allen’s boss at the time, former OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino, recently swore an affidavit wherein he refers to Detective Sergeant James Van Allen and his illegal activities. Evidence in Julian Fantino’s sworn affidavit includes (summarized except verbatim excerpts in quotes):

“The prosecuting lawyers hired and submitted an affidavit from Mr. Van Allen. They claimed that he was a private investigator and failed to disclose that he was a serving police officer with access to police resources. This police officer obtained confidential information not available to the public which was then used by the Judge to convict, sentence and imprison Mr. Best for contempt.”

“Although the lawyers regularly referred to Van Allen as a ‘private investigator’ in their legal documents and on the court record in verbal submissions and discussions with the Judge, Jim Van Allen was not a licensed private investigator. James ‘Jim’ Arthur Van Allen, was in fact a serving Ontario Provincial Police Detective Sergeant and manager of the OPP’s Criminal Profiling Unit who was working secretly and illegally as an unlicensed private investigator.”

“From my examination of the evidence that is already filed in court and was easily available to the courts and the CJC had they examined it, it is reasonable to conclude that OPP Detective Sergeant Jim Van Allen’s inappropriate employment as a private investigator, his access to confidential information and the distribution of the same, and the very creation of his affidavit in order to benefit private parties in a civil lawsuit, represents a flagrant violation of various Provincial and Federal laws including the Police Services Act, the Private Security and Investigative Services Act, the Criminal Code and the Freedom of Information Act.”

“Detective Sergeant Van Allen’s conduct and behavior in relation to this case occurred while I was OPP Commissioner. Had I known about it at the time, I would have immediately ordered an investigation to gather all evidence to determine the details, extent and duration of his activities with a view to possible provincial and/or criminal charges against Van Allen and, potentially, charges against other involved persons.”

“It is inconceivable that all the involved lawyers and Judge were unaware that ‘private investigator’ and expert witness Jim Van Allen was an OPP police officer. Considering many factors, including Detective Sergeant Van Allen’s high public profile, the rules and normal vetting practices by lawyers and judges concerning Expert Witnesses, and the fact that Van Allen’s affidavit and redacted invoices were clearly suspect on their face to any ordinary person let alone lawyers and judges, it is unbelievable that nobody in that courtroom knew the truth about Van Allen or otherwise cared to find out.”

“I notice that Van Allen’s two redacted invoices are numbers 11 and 12 for the year 2009, which to me raises serious questions about how many other illegal investigations he had performed and which lawyer clients might have retained him previously. Had I known of his transgressions, I would have acted immediately as OPP Commissioner to deal with his rogue conduct.”

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17 comments

Allen you are right. The public needs to be the game changer and demand change. We need to stand behind the courageous individuals like Don and Paul Manning, Honest former police officers who never swerved towards corruption but upheld their oath to serve and protect. Paul Manning is still a police officer but I believe is on suspended leave. God knows why. He is on medical leave as far as I see it. We the public need to give them support and attack the disgusting cockroaches known as dirty cops dirty government officials dirty lawyers and judges. They can’t muzzle freedom of speech. They can’t cut off our fingers so we can type whatever we want. They might not like it but too bad.. They should have paid bigger bucks and gotten better cyber terrorists who could have shut this website down. But those hackers were unsuccessful. Criminals of course nonetheless. If all Canadians become aware of these brave men then change can happen.

All good and honest hearted people will feel the pain and frustration that Donald Best felt while sitting in solitary confinement. Or tbe fear that Paul Manning felt as he is there in that room with the mobsters and when his own fellow officer drives by without coming to his aid. How sickening. To the children of all crooked cops judges lawyers etc. Tell your parents how disgusted you are to know their parent is crooked and would hurt courageous police officers or every day Canadians. Tell them they are a joke. Tell the bullies practice what you preach. These are the small ways we can support courageous fellow Canadians.

Can’t wait for Paul Mannings book The Englishman and we need to help his book become a best seller.

If you research this story it leads to the question ..was this rcmp agent in Quebec linked to the Rizzutto crime family and I believe the answer is YES. Based on the evidence coming forward it would appear our government is in bed with our crime families. Until they take steps to jail our crime figures then it will stand that our government is in the mud right up to their noses with crime families. Organized crime is everywhere including in our finsncial institutions in insurance companies in our Courts lawyers law enforcement and government ministeries. . A money laundering TD bank manager was murdered no doubt by the crime families operating in Ontario either directly by them or by crooked cops. Where there is one money laundering bank executive there are many more.

This Erin chick provided police info to the mob and 2 people were eventually murdered and she got 1 year. Jail She is an accessory to 2 murders. Her info got 2 peoples lives snuffed out. I wonder what mob figures she sold the info to and do they link to crooked cops.

The USA has alerts put in place to warn the citizens about their security.
In Canada the true threat we have is not from the middle east terrorist its from our own government and their crooked cover up of criminal. The governments of the crooked provincial and federal.

Its quite interesting the Halton Police had this confidential report since 2002. Is the Halton Police part of the Peel Regional Police. Are they together. I thought it was Halton Peel together. But regardless police are police. They should all be working together in the fight on crime to serve and protect the people.

Its interesting because a crooked solicitor known as William Gilmour had a complaint filed at the law society and it was dismissed without even one of the 19 witnesses being interviewed and the person who filed the complaint was never even told of the name of the law society investigator so obviously no investigation was even done. It was stopped. It was covered up. Where there is cover up there is guilt. Where there is cover up there is crooked criminals involved.

William Gilmour is a Brampton solicitor who worked for the Peel Regional Police. This guy was involved with a witness in the cover up of drugs into Canada. A huge story and once again where there is cover up there are criminals.

You can google William Gilmour and enjoy reading about this crooked solicitor. Follow the links. Very informative.

Interesting point in that story there was a crooked RCMP agent named Janette in Quebec. The former crooked FBI agent Terry Nelson has a 7 million dollar home in the Montreal area. I wonder how many FBI agents have 7 million dollar homes. Whats the average salary for an FBI agent???

There is a manipulation tool out there that is used to influence people sitting on a jury. Its a real problem that will need to be dealt with. We all know is been done frequently in the past .
It may be used on judges who are not friendly judges.
So yes we can be shocked at the level of criminality in our system. It has no bounds. Thus we need to expose those areas.
This manipulation tools makes it easier than what was done in the past.

A crooked cop gets 2 years house arrest. This cop is also suspected in feeding the mob information. That’s incredible.

David Simetic you certainly rattled the snakes known as crooked lawyers because they had to silence a citizen with no prior record or dealings with the law and you get more than 2 years house arrest and wasn’t there 6 charges of uttering against you . Wouldn’t one charge of uttering be sufficient. The other 5 were redundant???,,

2 years house arrest is rather high considering David Simetic was an upstanding hard working Canadian. I guess he had another crooked lawyer for his criminal case a crooked judge too.

Can citizens see the cover up by a crooked justice system in the David Simetic case.

Thanks for mentioning that Mohammed. It was 2 and a half years under house arrest for trying to bring evidence into justice of peace. Was forced to sign peace bond saying I need counseling. Uttering death threats x 6. Janice Laforme was one of the accusers. Who is she? Never heard of her? Norman Groot and Jeff Nanson 2 of the lawyers I hired in which I have not spoken to in maybe 2 years. But was about to bring fraud and obstruction charges against them with evidence. Had court in 3 days but was arrested before I could get into court room. Jerry Goldberg estate lawyer who typed out his own version of our family accounts which was short about $400,000.00 (I did the banking and helped my terminally ill family member get his affairs in order).

Warren Fullerton the master mind behind this scandal. He had an affair with my troubled sister as he helped kid her kids back from children’s aide. For this he felt entitled to our families life savings and destroyed us abusing his powers in the Windsor area. He is a stranger to us! Had personal charges against Warren and Jerry also but was obstructed. Mrs abrecht who claimed to be a 17 year investigator for the LSUC was the 6th death threat. She had to have me arrested as she had evidence but dropped complaints on the four lawyers above with ridiculous excuses or finally telling me it was out of her jurisdiction. This lady wasted 2 years of our time simply telling us to keep hiring lawyers and did nothing to investigate. Over a dozen lawyers involved now and still cannot access our own family accounts as they have exploited a bank policy that requires me to get a lawyer to obtain court orders. She is obviously part of this legal mafia and getting kick backs or nice Christmas bonus from the tens of millions being skimmed from Ontario trust accounts.

The funds these Ontario lawyers are skimming is tax free! Can explain how they skim estates and give evidence if requested. Ontario is in a very bad way regarding this publicly funded judicial system and it policing agencies. Their self governing policies are protecting nobody but them selves! This is were the corruption starts and why we need immediate reform! I am sure there are good cops and lawyers out there but reluctant to speak out as they will be punished like Donald Best and my self. Sad part is until our attorney General and Minister of Justice get involved and put an end to this horrific abuse of the Ontario Public The bad cops and lawyers will give all cops and lawyers a bad name. Why have these issues fallen on deaf ears regarding the leaders of our publicly funded system?

Well Janice LaForme may be related to our Court Judge Harry S. LaForme. Hmm…thanks for telling us your story David Simetic. Very interesting for all those reading this website. We thank you for your courage in naming these individuals. How is your court case going since you have no lawyer and it appears we do not have many courageous lawyers in Ontario.

So what are the police doing about this? lets see who is puling the strings behind the scenes to cover this up further? was there pressure from Harry S. LaForme to have David Simetic arrested and charged. A valid question to ask. Are we seeing a law society in bed with judges protecting them and other crooked lawyers. Your story David is riveting. We await your lawsuit. Dont back down when they try to bully you. You bring an assistant along with you to court and if they try to make them leave demand that your rights are exactly the same as the lawyers rights. An education and title doesnt circumvent your charter of rights. Then write down everything that transpires in court. Thats why you need an assistant. Check out everyone that had you arrested for threatening. Check who they link to. You be surprised how great the web is for that. The RCMP in the Windsor area who refused to do anything after you met with him. He has 2 law firms is that correct? Wow conflict of interest here. Incredible. Isnt he a senior member of the RCMP as well. Please let us know all these details. We are truly interested in your case and it links to Donald Best case too. A crooked law society in bed with crooked judges and lawyers. Remember you are crooked if you refuse to do proper investigations and you cover up for the crooked. There is no difference.

Please tell us the mental stress and anxiety that you received from these trumped up threatening charges and what a joke to make you sign a peace bond and seek counseling when its the crooked people who caused you mental stress and they are the source of much mental health problems in Canada.

David I hear you had stuff added to your computer. That is a tactic used by the crooked. Plant stuff on their computer to make them look bad. But since we all know now then the planting of weeds cant happen.

It was interesting to read that the crooked cop was known for 14 years as being linked to organized crime and it was covered up. Edward Snowden showed how many people can be linked from one person. So for 14 years of a crooked cop with mob ties known we should be rounding up hundreds of crooked cops crooked government crooked judges lawyers with this one crooked ccp tied to mobster Violi. Ask why not? Just gyulty by association to a organized crime syndicate or in other words a true terrorist organization there be hundreds of arrests with those linked to Violi and crooked cop.

Dave Simetic, the government at all the levels owe us a duty of care to ensure we rare protected from this type of corruption and even from that corrupt gang. It is long passed time that governments realise they owe us protection and stop subjecting us to the increasingly worse and brazen misconduct from them.

They can regulate themselves all they want but when it comes to us we need a regulation that is not controlled by them. It is full time for that

Could not have said it better Allen. Very tough to get a police officer to cross the thin blue line. Well the same goes for lawyers. They will get punished if they try but they are still allowed to police themselves. Donald Best is a man of rare courage who needs public and media support to put an end to this corruption.

Mr Best, I can tell you I am actually in shock at the level of criminality among law enforcement and administration in Ontario THAT IS KNOWN yet no government has even lifted a finger to address it. It bothers me that no government has done anything and that the Law Society of Upper Canada is still in existence with responsibility to deal with protection of the public.

I am currently dealing with two Ontario tribunals and the barefaced crookedness astounds me. Yet not one politician or government member has lifted a finger to curtail these wrong-doings. I thought the crookedness in Alberta was bad but my God Ontario takes the cake. One of the things that strikes me is how judges and adjudicators glaringly disrespect and abuse lawyers who defend those who need legal representation. This is one of the issues I take with NSRLP for it keeps talking about the issue with SRLs as legal representation. That is not the issue. The real issue is dirty judges and adjudicators that we must deal with and get rid of.

When dear God will anything change? Something has to change but I think the public needs to be the game changer and start by demanding change